Blame game over asylum seeker boat sinking

Support for onshore processing of asylum seekers’ claims by the Labor Left and Greens contributed to the latest tragic sinking of a refugee boat early on Sunday morning, according to former Labor leader
Mark Latham
.

The overcrowded wooden boat, apparently bound for Christmas Island and carrying up to 250 ­people, including up to 40 children, sank in rough seas about 90 kilo­metres from Java. Only 87 people had been rescued late on Sunday.

Most of those on board were from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan and paid between $2000 and $5000 to people smugglers, Indo­nesian authorities said.

Australia will on Monday send a P3 Orion surveillance aircraft, patrol boat HMAS Ararat and AFP police officers to help with the investigation.

“This is a regional problem and it requires a regional solution," Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare told ABC radio on Monday. “You’ve got people smugglers that act with a callous disregard for human life."

Mr Latham said the only compassionate approach was to stop asylum seekers making the dangerous journeys in the first place, a position shared by the Coalition and Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
.

“Let’s be brutally honest about it, the boat’s sinking and families dying is a direct consequence of the so-called compassionate people who support onshore processing,’’ Mr Latham said. “I just still find it an amazing disconnect between the way in which the Greens and the Labor Left talk about the issue [of refugees] and the way in which reality deals with it," he told Sky News.

“You can’t be compassionate and you can’t have a good heart if you encourage people to get on boats that sink.

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“Onshore processing is a magnet for people to pay people smugglers to get on boats that are unseaworthy and to effectively risk their lives on the high seas between Indonesia and Australia."

Refugee advocacy groups argued that the government’s policies contributed to the deaths.

Refugee Action Coalition coordinator Ian Rintoul said if the government was worried about losing lives at sea it should decriminalise people smuggling.

He said voyages would then be planned and undertaken in seaworthy boats.

Labor’s policy has been in disarray since the High Court struck down a deal to process asylum claims in Malaysia, a policy designed to deter people from trying to reach Australia by sea. The opposition did not support legislation which would have made the policy legal.

Ms Gillard declared the government had little choice under the ­circumstances but to assess asylum claims on Australian territory, known as onshore processing, and she predicted an upsurge in arrivals.

Over the past three weeks 800 people have made the trip, according to government figures.

The opposition said it would have supported legislation which led to the processing of asylum seekers on PNG’s Manus Island and Nauru.

Home Affairs Minister
Jason Clare
, who was appointed last week, declined to discuss the government’s policy towards asylum seekers.

“Our focus today is on the search and rescue effort and our thoughts today are with the people who died and with the families of those still lost at sea," he said.

If anyone was to blame it was the “scum who take the money from ­people and put them on boats and risk their lives", he said.

Mr Latham, who is a contributor to The Australian Financial Review, criticised Greens immigration spokeswoman
Sarah Hanson-Young
, who he claimed would call for onshore processing to be cemented after the tragedy.

“These people should be silenced, there should be a way of shutting them up, because it is a moral outrage that they . . . are allowed to pose in the public arena as compassionate people who are so-called left wing,’’ he said.

Senator Hanson-Young declined to respond.

“I’m not going to say anything to Mark Latham . . . I’m not interested in getting caught up in the politicking and the nastiness like Mark Latham,’’ she said.

The opposition and many on Labor’s Right, including Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister
Chris Bowen
, argue that processing claims in Malaysia, which has corporal punishment, would deter asylum seekers heading to Australia in leaky boats.

Opposition immigration spokesman
Scott Morrison
said the Coalition was profoundly saddened by the ­tragedy.

“The report of this tragedy once again confirms our worst fears and the extremely dangerous nature of these journeys, especially at this time of year,’’ Mr Morrison said in a statement.

“The large number of people reported to have been on this vessel is especially concerning and confirms the trend we have seen this year with people smugglers putting more and more people onto every boat."